Mongolia · Instrument Making / Weapon Craft
нум (Num)
The Mongolian num (нум) — the composite recurve bow — is the most technically complex portable object in the nomadic craft vocabulary: a laminated structure of wood core, sinew backing, and horn belly that stores and releases energy more efficiently than any simple bow material alone. The Mongolian bow reversed the hierarchy of Western archery: it was shot from horseback at full gallop, requiring a short, powerful draw that the composite structure uniquely enables. The defining technical knowledge is the sinew preparation: cow or horse sinew is beaten, separated into fibers, mixed with hide glue, and applied to the back of the bow core in a specific layering sequence while the core is in a reflexed (pre-bent) position. When the glue dries and the bow is released, the sinew tension produces the bow's characteristic reverse curve — 'the bow bends toward you before it bends away.'
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Mongolian traditional archery — UNESCO Representative List (2020); bow making on Mongolia national ICH list
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